A nomad is someone who is homeless and goes from place to place. They are open to exploring territory within their reach because they have no fixed location, which lets them generate money. These roaming herds are unlike most people, who want to settle down in one area and grow their occupation and family – an idea that the millennials despise.
Millennials despise slow living and staying in one location; travel provides them with excitement and exposure. Their concept of assets/investment has also evolved as a result of their desire for a fast-paced lifestyle. To them, digital assets appear to be far more profitable than physical assets such as land and houses. Isn’t that akin to nomadic behaviour, but in a more modern setting?
“The crypto sector reminds me of the early days of the Internet in the mid-90s. Surojit Chatterjee, chief product officer of Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange platform, says, “There’s so much to develop and so early, and so much opportunity to disrupt technology, traditional sectors and improve people’s lives.”
Who doesn’t want to be able to tap into a worldwide pool of capital? Trading and cryptocurrency exchanges began shortly after blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies (Ethereum and Bitcoin) were introduced to the market.
Unlike current stock markets and commodity exchanges, these exchanges were unregulated. There were fewer entry-exit obstacles, but they were extremely volatile. As trading volumes increased, it became clear that cryptocurrency would breakthrough international restrictions. It would not be wrong to say that the ease with which cryptocurrencies provide access to global markets has led to the emergence of ‘crypto nomads.’
A crypto nomad is a person who prefers to use money that has no borders. They can be categorised into two groups.
The first group consists of crypto traders who are knowledgeable about the market but are unable to trade in their own country due to regulatory constraints or restrictions. Such people establish offices in pro-crypto locations (other than their own country) and manage their businesses from there. As an example.
At the age of 29, Sam Bankman-Fried, the richest person in crypto, has relocated his office to Hong Kong, where he owns FTX, a cryptocurrency trading platform. He left the United States because regulators forbade FTX from selling futures to the general public due to their high risk.
“Crypto Nomads is a self-sustaining paradigm where people can choose to earn/own bitcoin and spend it for their needs,” explains Abhishek Bhattacharya, co-founder of blockchain firm Whrrl. The model is straightforward: “earn in crypto, pay in crypto.”
Rather than routing money through a bank and suffering transaction fees, it is more convenient to keep crypto. Bhattacharya believes that as more e-commerce sites embrace cryptocurrency, the number of people who can use it as a medium of trade will grow.
The world after COVID-19 is drastically different, as we can see. Working from afar has become the new standard. Millennials and Generation Z are willing to take on tasks that allow them to work remotely, and they are open to investigating global investing alternatives as a result of this trend.
While COVID-19 imposed travel limitations, the number of crypto nomads may rise once these are eliminated. According to Bhattacharya, shifting employment circumstances will help them flourish.
Even though bitcoin has not been granted legal tender status, its acceptance as a digital asset in some countries, such as Estonia, makes it a popular medium of exchange.
Crypto nomads thrive in the decentralised finance biome, which is an alternative finance ecosystem that bypasses traditional financial institutions’ barriers. This could be the future of foreign transactions since it aligns with the fast-paced thinking of millennials.